I am totaly hooked up on MilkShape. But, it's not free. Second but, it is PRACTICALY for free. Registration is 20 $ only and you have excellent modeling and animation tool with imporst and exports for 30-40, I dont know how much different file formats...

For something simple aoi fits very well and it's very easy to learn and use. use blender for something more complex, it has a lot of cool features, but it's quite dificult to use (there are tons of manuals out there, but i haven't had time for them, it's still on my todo list ).

3Dsmax was my main modeling tool until i came to grips with blender and saw max's UI getting in the way of everything im trying to do... Ive used SoftImage XSI...well, lets not go there.

Maya has an awsome animation suite, but its modeling is a bit basic, so some people decided to make Modo3D which is modeling, its alot like LightWave with a better UI and better integration with Maya. However, Autodesk (3dsmax people) have bought Alias (maya people) and so far, nothing has come out from both camps to see what the results of this merger....

I've used Milkshape, its good, but its got a higher learning curve than blender (!) IMO. Also, the nice thing about Blender if your modeling for an OpenGL game is that its viewport is in true OpenGL. This means you effectively get WYSIWYG modeler, which is always nice. It also tries to keep things in either triangles or quads (you can switch using a Cntrl command between the two to re-rasterise the entire selected mesh to either of the primitives) which keeps your engine happy.

To summerise from my experience:

1) Max is great, very easy to use for beginners, but gets in your way afterwards. Use Blender.2) Max exports mainly to 3ds, its obj exporter is b0rked as it doesn't confrom to the obj specs. Blender has tons of export scripts, Im using it for Md5 at the moment but there are TONS of scripts out there. Use Blender3) Blender is free. Use Blender.

Also, there is 'Wings'? I didn't check it out, but I think I recall the name correct. Anyone have experience with that?And I dont agree with darkprophet about blender having smaller learning time than MilkShape, but.. What to say. It is personall stuff, some applications suits you, some don't .

Anim8or has the easiest interface, but working with it is rather slow. Working with wings is more streamlined (after the you memorized the important shortcuts). And blender... well, that one features some outer space GUI... tried it several times and always gave up. The learning curve is very steep.

I find that you have absolutely _no_ change using blender out of the box. You can't just learn it the way you are used to learn new programs. The only way to learn it is by stepping through a fair amount (all ) of the tutorials available (e.g. http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Tutorials.243.0.html). I was not able to archive any goal without stepping through a related tutorial.

But if you have overcome this stage, you will find blender to be a superb tool with nearly all features one would need. Even the GUI makes sense all of the sudden! Take your time and give it a try.... (or two or three )

Because they have dont use scroll bars! I have a relatively crap monitor that can only do a max of 1152x864. This resolutions is more than fine with 99% of all the modelers i have tried, except XSI. The left panel button arrangment extend to waaay beyond the bottom of the screen, and if they would just add scroll bars, the entire world would be happy again. Granted, you can change the panel layouts and stuff, and there is a download for a layout to work on 800x600, but that restricts the 3D area making it nearly useless for me. Such a small bug, yet making the entire thing useless for a person like me.

Besides, why spend 500 dollars on a program, where blender is free and with that money, you can get a high end GPU to make better games with?

If you've got the money for it 3DS Max is the best of the best for video game development (IMHO) - it does it all and it does it easily.

If you don't have the money, Blender is frighteningly good for something that's free. I use blender for all my own stuff and some stuff for work.

Both are pretty easy to learn; IF you know 3D modeling - there are alot of concepts and approaches to learn for modelling. Using these tools is closer to programming then it is to using a paint program - there are always dozens (or more) ways you can solve a problem with a modeler. Like a programming language, if you know one you can quickly pick up another. Also like programming - not everyone can do it. There is definetly an aptittude component to the art.

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